10 of the most important stories about education research in 2018

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For my year-end post, I’m highlighting 10 of the most important Proof Points stories of 2018. The first nine are listed in the order of popularity, by the number of times readers viewed them on our website, The Hechinger Report. The final story wasn’t quite as popular but its insights into innovation and technology are worth repeating.

Thank you to everyone who has read and commented on my weekly stories about education data and research. I look forward to continuing this conversation with you in 2019. If you would like to receive an email newsletter and notification when the column comes out each week, please click here and fill out the form. Happy Holidays and I’ll be back again on Jan. 7, 2019.

My most popular story of the year shows how platooning, or teacher specialization in elementary schools, might be harming kids while looping, keeping the same teacher for two years in a row, is beneficial. The reason: kids do better when teachers know them well.

A math specialist shows how implicit biases unintentionally creep into the classroom. It’s an increasingly important topic now that white students comprise less than half of the nation’s students but white teachers still make up 80 percent of the teaching profession.

Philanthropists are increasingly interested not only in counting college degrees but also in helping low-income kids move into the middle class. A small, somewhat pricey 50-year-old program in New York City is a prime example of an engine of social mobility, economists find.

The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn't mean it's free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

Jill Barshay

Jill Barshay is a staff writer and editor who writes the weekly “Proof Points” column about education research and data. She taught algebra to ninth graders for the 2013-14 school year. In school,...
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